7 Fitness Tips for a Healthier 2025

Make 2025 the year of optimum fitness

With 2025 upon us, I am scratching my head wondering how I’m going to fit all of my fitness goals into the coming year. I ran two marathons in 2024 and as I look into next year’s plans, all my evaluations occur around my commitments: a job that keeps me fed, loved ones that keep me whole, and chores that take up too much time. Pulling motivation together for fitness is a struggle–one that I have come to view as part of my life. A non-negotiable.

But this is a non-negotiable in service of my body which has its own limits and needs. So as I share this guide of fitness principles, keep in mind that their application comes from a place of gentle self-improvement, where by the end of this year—and as I welcome 2026—I’ll be stronger, faster, and healthier than I was but I didn’t bully myself every step of the way.

1. Focus on lines, not dots

Honestly, I got this from work.

Attributed to investor Mark Suster, this is the idea of measuring performance over time rather than with one data point. We will enter 2025 with a full-tank of motivation and will pour incredible energy into the month of January: think gym membership, running plan, healthy eating goals. If life has its way though, this tank may simply not be as full come Q2. 

Rather than letting that eat you inside, gently remind yourself that the efforts over time, the lines connecting the data points of performance across time, are going to be pulling you ahead into a fitter version of yourself. 

Don’t get stuck on a single dot.

2. Find a community

I’ll admit a penchant for joining run clubs. 

As hotbeds of extra motivation and massive energy, these once small clubs have grown into hugely popular fitness phenomena. Within the Philippines alone, almost 100 of these clubs have been documented. Crossfit gyms, cycling studios, and pilates studios are also popular venues to share fitness goals with communities–venues for exchanging energy and motivation.

3. Lift weights (especially if you’re a runner)

The emphasis is personal.

I’ve been running for years and this is the first year I’ve spent nursing a longer-term injury. All those years spent running without stretching or lifting weights have created both weak and overused muscle groups. The result: months off from the sport I love the most. 

While it’s not in me to create a strength plan for you, online resources and even ChatGPT queries on strength training for runners can be helpful. I now shoot for about three weight sessions per week in tandem with my running program.

4. Measure your progress

While there are plenty of fitness gadgets available on the market, these may not be easily accessible for everyone. A fitness watch is a useful repository for all sorts of fitness data–from watching an improving resting heart rate to simply tallying how long you’ve worked out in any given month.

For years though, I timed my runs with a cellphone timer and just kept track of how many days I’d run per week. Gradually, I noticed it’d take me less and less time to complete my running route.

This simple data provided me the line I needed to view my progress. Extremely motivating stuff.

5. Make it part of your routine

Motivation is not the only fuel you have at your disposal on your fitness adventure. Routines are another–of course built from a reservoir of discipline. 

Indeed, finding the push to run after my workday yields troublesome mental dialogue, but planning ahead and scheduling all my workouts for the week before or around my work gives my fitness plan some bite-sized structure. Especially if you’re scheduling class workouts, this can give you short bursts of dopamine-promised activity to look forward to.

6. No perfect time to start (even if that means starting again)

Whether that means picking up a new sport, getting back into the gym, or rescuing a meditation practice, plenty of time can be lost waiting for the perfect moment. 

Although repeated mightily across the internet, these words continue to bear weight in my life: progress is better than perfection. 

Make the choice. The perfect time doesn’t come.

7. Be kind to yourself

And do it now. The perfect time never comes–as we mentioned above. There’s nothing other than your exact self, sitting there reading this, that you need to be to unlock permission for self-kindness.

You might stray from your plan, miss a workout, have a few too many beers, but all of that falls within the fabric of this life we’re given to enjoy. Rather than beating yourself up over steps taken off the path to health and wellness, congratulate yourself on the journey you’re constantly on to improve yourself–including all the little indulgences you’ve given yourself along the way. 

Fitness for 2025 and beyond

Not everyone is given the space and time to talk about and readily access fitness, and so behind every run and training session I find a massive well of gratitude. To have breath in my lungs, strength in my limbs, and the freedom to move–nothing is left to be taken for granted. If you have at your disposal the time and ability to engage with fitness regularly, locate its reason for being in your life–and hold onto it dearly. 

There’s no perfect time to start.

Model Anthony Constantino

Photography Shaira Luna

Art direction Mike Miguel

Fashion Eldzs Mejia

Grooming and hair Thazzia Falek and Patty Cristobal

Production Jones Palteng

Grooming assistant George Dillinger

Fashion assistants Carl Alberto and Migs Leguera